Reed Krakoff Fall 2014

This was Reed Krakoff’s first show since buying his business from Coach, where he worked for more than a decade, turning it into a billion-dollar brand. It was a new beginning of sorts, and not surprisingly he made some changes, hiring another stylist and reconsidering his approach to his show. “It’s a different kind of collection,” he said beforehand. “I started with the idea of seasonlessness—nobody dresses that way anymore anyway. It’s not a super-linear, one-shoe, one-hemline message.”

Looking back, last season felt a bit listless with its noncolor colors and ethereal fabrics. This show had more going for it. Color, for starters—the ultraviolet of a long wool cashmere vest and the solar yellow of a strapless dress were fairly electric—but also pattern and texture. Krakoff has made something of a signature of python (the real kind and the print), and he revisited it effectively here, draping a couple of longish wrap skirts in the stuff, and paneling the front of a V-neck sweater with it. Knits are definitely a strong suit. A chunky ribbed cardigan with shearling patches on the sleeves will be a popular item.

The news was in a dress collaged from graphic lacquered lace and a polka-dot print that he said was inspired by an Alexander Liberman painting. Whimsy doesn’t necessarily come naturally to Krakoff, but the dress looked believable underneath a sleeveless cashmere coat with an astrakhan collar. You wished that he’d expended a little more energy on honest-to-goodness, stand-up-to-the-polar-vortex outerwear. But if that was a missed opportunity, a shrunken shearling bomber did look good. High marks, too, for a pantsuit in charcoal brushed-wool jersey. The cut was great, and the fact that it was jersey means the comfort factor will be sky-high.